Basic Multidimensional Cadet Theory
by I'vebeenLOKI'Dyetagain
Summary: Noh-Varr at the New Year's party; the scene from the beginning of Young Avengers (2013) #15. (Kind of a companion fic to "Dance Baby, Dance" and "It's New Year's, Apparently!")


**AN: This is the beginning scene from _YOUNG AVENGERS (2013) #15. _**

**Dialogue and action is all taken directly from the comic (so I don't own it!), but I added in Noh-Varr's thoughts. Because I wanted to get into Noh's head a little becuaseIamabsolutelyandcompletelyobsessedwithhimohmygods.  
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**This is kind of a companion fic to "Dance Baby, Dance" (part of the New Year's party from Kate's POV) and "It's New Year's, Apparently!" (part of the New Year's party from Tommy's POV), but you by no means have to read those fics to enjoy this one.  
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><p><strong><span>Basic Multidimensional Cadet Theory<span>**

From behind the DJ table Noh-Varr looked out at the dance floor, watching Kate, the gorgeous girl who he used to be lucky enough to have as a girlfriend, laugh and dance with another white-haired boy, who happened to be the Tommy they'd been chasing the Patriot monster across dimensions for.

Kate looked so beautiful, out there. And happy, too.

Noh-Varr turned away and sighed. The room was hot with all those dancing bodies, and sweat beaded on his brow. "You know what?" he said, as his eyes landed on the Brood—an alien like him, albeit a completely different species—who was manning the DJ table with him. "This was meant to be fun, Broo."

He'd wrapped an arm around a nearby pillar and now leaned his right cheek against it, staring off at nothing.

"Since I've been on Earth, I've just tried to live up to the legacy," he said. "Conquer the Earth, save the Earth, it's all the same. And where did it leave me?" He glanced down, locks of niveous hair falling into his face. "Hated."

Declaring war on Earth as Marvel Boy. Got him locked up in the Cube, a superpenitentiary.

Ruling over the Cube and deciding to turn it and Earth into the new capital of the Kree Empire. Never really worked out, maybe he didn't quite have the motivation, or maybe he'd gotten distracted by the secret invasion of the Earth by the Skrulls.

Joining the Dark Avengers as Captain Marvel, to try and protect the world. To be fair, he hadn't known that Osborn and the entire crew were criminals and maniacs when he joined, and when he learned the truth he immediately left the team.

Trying to protect the Earth as Protector, and joining the Avengers. Got him banished from Earth, declared a traitor by both the X-Men and the Avengers, stranded on the Kree homeworld, and being hunted down by his own race for betraying them.

"So... forget it," Noh said, brushing his left hand through his hair, stroking it away from his eyes. "Just do what I do. Low stakes emotionally, high stakes action. Saving the world and enjoying it, in the best of company."

These last few months with the Young Avengers were the best he'd had in... a long time. A really long time.

"Kate was exactly what I needed." He rested his cheek against the pillar again, watching her dance with the boy with the leanly muscled runner's body. "You know, Broo? She was great. She was so great."

It wasn't just that she was gorgeous and badass and an A+ smoocher—because she was, oh but she _was—_but she was so much more than that, too. She'd been an anchor, had kept him from drifting away and becoming alienated—because he _was _an alien, and he didn't always understand humans, but she had helped him and hadn't expected him to be what he wasn't. And she'd been the reason he'd gotten mixed up in the whole Mother disaster, and had the best time of his life in a long time.

"But..." he closed his eyes and exhaled. "Oubliette was the last time my life made any sense. I barely remember any of it, except how it felt. I wanted that feeling back."

That feeling of purpose, of knowing exactly what he was meant to do with himself, even if that had been to conquer the Earth. Oubliette had been sick in the brain, but he wasn't exactly 'sane' himself, and she'd been... she'd been exactly what he'd needed at the time, someone who understood just how fucked up life was but also knew that nobody deserved any pity for it. She was a killer, but then, so was he.

They'd connected on some twisted level of having seen and experienced things that would have broken any normal human being.

He'd known that he was meant to conquer the world, and she was the kind of person who would have helped him accomplish that.

But there was no way he could ever go back to that feeling, because he no longer knew his purpose, and he now knew that whatever his purpose in life was, it didn't include conquering the Earth.

"The classic error," Noh said, shaking his head and sneering slightly. "Time travel is impossible, because the time traveler has changed. That's basic multidimensional cadet theory." One of the first things he'd learned, and something he really should have remembered. "Oh, Noh: laughable and pitiful," he said, voice full of self-contempt.

He closed his eyes and took a breath through his nose. "You have to move forward," he murmured. "There's no other choice." Opening his eyes, he looked over his bare shoulder at the shorter, insectoid alien. "You know what I mean, Broo?"

"_Hmm?" _Broo hummed in question, red orbs of eyes glancing up from the gadget he'd been fiddling with, obviously having not heard any of the Kree's soliloquy.

"Broo!" Noh exclaimed in indignation, crossing his arms and glaring sidelong at the Brood.

"Sorry, Mister Noh-Varr. Were you communicating?" Broo asked as he picked up a record from the Kree's collection and started examining it. "I was continuing my work on an automatic DJ that reads pheromone data from the crowd and cross-references it to social media music tastes to prescribe the correct music! The DJ is rendered obsolete! Then you can just dance! You would prefer to dance, correct?"

Noh-Varr turned his head quickly, letting out a huff of breath. He didn't really want to go out there and dance with everyone else, and he rather enjoyed DJ-ing, but obviously Broo wanted to dance.

"Broo. That girl over there is in need of a partner," Noh said, pointing at Idie, a girl with warm brown skin and dark brown hair who was sitting there looking at her phone who had thermokinesis powers. It was well known that they were best friends, and it was easy to tell that they both rather wanted to be more than that, but neither quite knew how to go about that, especially with her being a mutant human but Broo being a mutant from a race of evil, savage aliens. "Go help her out."

"But I'm unsure if Idie wants to dance—" Broo started uncertainly as Noh-Varr pushed him out of the DJ area towards her.

"She goes hot and cold," Noh said. "Don't worry. She _wants _to dance."

"But sir!" Broo protested, holding up the record he'd been examining, "I was preparing the next musical composition from your primitive recording device to—"

"I'll do it," Noh said, grabbing the record and nodded at the Brood to go on over to Idie.

Broo went, and Noh glanced down at the record, his eyes widening in surprise as he saw the song was 'Be My Baby' by the Ronettes. That was the song that he'd been dancing to the morning after he'd first slept with Kate...

He glanced over at her where she was still dancing with the white-haired speedster, then looked back down at the record, a small smile coming over his face as he remembered the somewhat queer way she'd looked at him for listening to 60s music.

"Enough, Marvel Boy," he said, lips twitching upwards slightly as he put down the Ronette record and picking up 'Get Lucky' by Daft Punk. "Something else. Something _she'll _like..." It was the least he could do for her after everything she'd given him and the way he'd only disappointed her in return.

He put on the disco and funk song for Kate and the other party-goers, transitioning the end of the song that had been playing into the beginning of the new track. "Perfect," he said.

Then took the blue and highlighter-yellow headphones that had been hanging around his neck and placed them over his ears, playing the 60s song for himself, loud enough to drown out the rest of the party.

"The drums," he said to himself as the 'Be My Baby' started up, the beat filling his head and a bringing a small smile to his face. "Listen to them."

He closed his eyes and started dancing, arms raised, hips swaying.

_The night we met I knew I needed you so,  
>And if I had the chance I'd never let you go.<br>So won't you say you love me? I'll make you so proud of me.  
>We'll make 'em turn their heads every place we go. <em>


End file.
